Universal Worldwide Television

Background

Universal Worldwide Television was originally formed in 1998, the year that Seagram announced plans to acquire the holdings of the Dutch-German conglomerate PolyGram, which included PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and PolyGram Television. The deal closed in 1999, and the name PolyGram was soon scrubbed and replaced with the Universal name, and thus, Universal Studios Network Programming was formed. However in 1999, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios used its debt to acquire most of the pre-1996 films (1,300 titles) by PolyGram from Seagram. Universal Worldwide Television also distributed shows from Studios USA Television internationally, while Studios USA distributed Universal's shows. In 2001, Vivendi, which had recently bought out Seagram's entire roster of entertainment properties, including Universal, acquired USA Networks' entertainment assets for an estimated $10.3 billion and made Barry Diller chairman and CEO of Vivendi Universal Entertainment with Ron Meyer, the then-president and COO of Universal Studios, adding VUE to his purview. The deal closed on May 28, 2002; following the merger, Universal Worldwide Television merged with Studios USA Television Distribution to form Universal Domestic Television and Universal Television Distribution, with the latter name used for international purposes.

(1998-2002)

Logo: Same as the 1997 Universal Television logo, but the name reads as "UNIVERSAL WORLDWIDE TELEVISION" as it fades in under the logo. The copyright notice is intact.

Variants:

A long version exists.
Starting in 1999, it's the last few seconds of the theatrical logo, complete with URL.
On the 1999 TV movie Anya's Bell, some episodes of the first two seasons of Monk, as well as widescreen reruns of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, the tail end of the movie logo, which features the globe zooming back, is shown.
A print version of the logo exists on Maisy.

Technique: CGI by Identica Partnership.

Music/Sounds: Same as the 1997 Universal Television logo. It's either in a long or a short version. CBS airings of Anya's Bell used a generic theme.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On-demand prints (i.e. Tubi and The Roku Channel) of Xena: Warrior Princess season 5 episode 4 "Animal Attraction" have the 1997 fanfare in a high pitch.
On the R2 release of Baa Baa Black Sheep (a.k.a. Black Sheep Squadron): The Complete First Season on DVD, the French audio track has the 1977 logo music playing over the 1998 Universal Worldwide Television logo due to bad plastering.

Availability: Uncommon.

It's virtually tacked on to any Studios USA show from the era when distributed internationally (i.e. the Law & Order franchise, Monk, Brother's Keeper, Payne).
The long version of the Universal Worldwide Television logo was seen on reruns of In Search of... from the late 1990s.
It was also seen on Anya's Bell, as well as Blind Date and The 5th Wheel.
Strangely, on Horror Channel UK's print of The Incredible Hulk season 2 episode "Wildfire" and the Xena: Warrior Princess season 5 episode "Animal Attraction" on Tubi and The Roku Channel, the version with the website URL also plays before the start of the episode, confusingly enough.
It also appeared at the end of the last 9 episodes of the 5th and final season of Sliders after the Studios USA logo.
Also appeared on several children's programs such as Sitting Ducks, The Mummy: The Animated Series (after the Studios USA logo), the Fractured Fairy Tales short "The Phox, The Box, and the Lox", which preceded Dudley Do-Right and The Mummy: The Animated Series.
- It also appeared on U.S., Canadian, and Latin American television airings of Season 1 of Boo! (Season 2 used the NBCUniversal Television Distribution logo, and it's unknown if any other non-UK airings used it).

Copyright Stamps

Here is some information about the copyright stamps on the Universal Television series and TV movies:

1999: Copyright © [YEAR] PolyGram Television LLC. All Rights Reserved. (Used on Anya's Bell)

◄	Universal Television Enterprises PolyGram Television

Universal Worldwide Television

Universal Television Distribution
Universal Domestic Television

►